Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) Vaccine as a Potential Cause of
Encephalitis (Brain Inflammation) in Children

Harold E. Buttram, MD

Childhood autism is the result of encephalitis affecting primarily the limbic system of
the brain, located below the cerebral cortex. A relatively few number of cases are due to
genetic causes, but officially the great majority are of unknown causes.

Bernard Rimland, PhD, founding director of the Autism Research Institute, estimates
that there are now a minimum of 250,000 autistic children in America, a 10 to 15-fold
increase in the past 50 or so years. Dr. Rimland, internationally recognized as a leading
expert in the field of autism, has publically stated that he believes current childhood
vaccine programs are one of the major causes for the current epidemic of autism.1

The US Committee on Children, Youth, and Families has estimated there are now 7.5
million American children with developmental delay compared with 4.8 million in 1991. Of
these, 30% are thought to be autistic or have autistic tendencies .2

It is true that statistics are subject to question, but the real scope of the problem
can be gained by talking with veteran elementary school teachers, and I have talked with
many of them. Without exception in my experience, they emphatically confirm that there has
been a dramatic and widespread increase among school children in learning and behavioral
disorders attention deficit and hyperactivity, and children requiring special education.
These changes appear most notable since the 1970's.

Dawbarns Law Firm of England has published a paper in which they report on over 600
instances of side effects following the MMR and MR vaccines, which were introduced in
England in 1988.3 These include 202 cases of autism, 97 of epilepsy, 40 with hearing and
vision problems, and 41 with 100 behavioral and learning problems, the latter in older
children. Although British health officials deny a relationship of these conditions with
the vaccines, Dawbarns has accounts of over 200 parents who believe that their children
were normal before they were vaccinated, and who can point to nothing (other than the
vaccine) which could account for the deterioration in their children's conditions.

The Physician's Desk Reference, in its section on the MMR vaccine, states that
complications from MMR, such as encephalitis and optic neuritis, occur "very
rarely." This is the conventional view, sincerely held by a majority of doctors, but
where does the truth lie? Could it be that adverse consequences to MMR vaccine are
occurring on a larger scale than officially recognized?

Hypothetical model for MMR vaccine as a cause of encephalitis Nerve cells of the brain
function by conducting nerve impulses, Much like electrical wiring, these cells require
insulation to function normally. This insulation is provided by myelin sheaths, made up
largely of fatty material. For the most part myelination of nerve cells of the brain does
not commence until after birth. Most is laid down during the first 5 years of normal
development.

It is now generally thought that the process of encephalitis, whether from wild viruses
of live-virus vaccines, is associated with an interference with the myelination process
brought about by the development of antibodies against myelin basic protein, a constituent
of the myelin sheaths .4

In theory there are several mechanisms whereby the MMR vaccine could have increased
potency to induce harmful autoantibodies (antibodies which attack the body's own tissues
and organs, including the myelin sheathes), once injected into the human system.

First and perhaps foremost, MMR is incubated in chick embryo culture medium, which
necessarily includes precursors of all the organ systems of the chick, including myelin
basic protein. Merck Pharmaceuticals, which produces MMR vaccine, claims that all traces
of the chick embryo are removed before the vaccine is released for use. This may be true,
but it is probably irrelevant as it does not take into account the process of mobile
genetic elements, more commonly referred to as "jumping genes." Viruses being
made up entirely of genetic material, they are highly susceptible to this process. It has
been shown that viruses are genetically changed by accepting genetic material from cell
cultures.' The genetic imprint of the chick myelin basic protein, which is foreign to the
human system because of its chick origin, may be programmed to induce antibodies against
human myelin basic protein, once injected into the human system. This in turn, potentially
resulting in encephalitis.

The second theoretical reason is that the MMR vaccine is injected by needle directly
into the system. This differs, from the natural infections which are "cushioned"
or buffered by the mucosal immune system (Secretary IgA) of the respiratory tract. By
passing this mucosal immune system, the injection may carry greater potency for harmful
autoantibody formation.

Third, measles virus carries protein similar to those found in myelin sheaths 6 so that
antibodies induced by the measles vaccine may cross-react harmfully with myelin.

Carrying this line of thought further, in 1993 Vijendra Singh, PhD University of
Illinois, published a study in which they found antibodies to myelin basic protein in 50
to 60% of autistic children tested.4 Recently at a public meeting Dr. Singh presented
information on an unpublished, preliminary study of 27 autistic children in which he found
nearly 50% correlation between MMR antibodies and antibodies to myelin basic protein in
serum drawn from the children.7 Dr. Singh emphasized that this study was very preliminary
and that no conclusions could be drawn from it. However, it does raise a higher index of
suspicion that the MMR vaccine may result in encephalitis and its various complications on
a fairly large scale. Once again, this leads us to question whether or not many vaccine
reactions are passing unrecognized and therefore unreported by the US medical community.

Reasons for under-reporting of adverse vaccine reactions in the USA As reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association in 1990, there is a general malaise among
American physicians in reporting adverse drug (and vaccine) reactions;.8 ,9 Based on this
report, the present voluntary reporting system appears to have resulted in very low levels
of adverse reaction reports.

The original screening studies for measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine were limited to
short periods of time such as 6 weeks observation for adverse affects. This limited time
did not take into account the possibility of delayed reactions, which may outnumber those
occurring within the 6 or so week period. In the case of cancer, we know there may be
periods of years between the original body insult and onset of cancer. In the case of the
vaccines, it is possible that slow and subclinical process of encephalitis may be
initiated which may not manifest until much later an therefore remain unrecognized as
having been caused by the MMR vaccine.

It is possible that MMR vaccine reactions are now occurring on a much larger scale than
they did in the original screening studies, because many children today are second
generation vaccinees; that is, they are born mothers previously vaccinated with MMR. The
mothers having been vaccinated with genetically contaminated MMR, as previous described,
the children may have heightened susceptibility to adverse reactions when rechallenged
with the vaccine.10 Further confirmation of this concept is found in a recent report from
Japan where it was demonstrated that live virus from measles vaccine do persist in
mononuclear cells of the body in children with autoimmune hepatitis.16 Doctors, having
been conditioned by the rarity of adverse reactions in the original screening studies, are
generally inclined to dismiss these reactions as due to other causes.

The decline of childhood diseases before vaccination There is a generally held concept
that mass vaccine programs were largely responsible for control of former epidemic
diseases, but with the probable exception of the polio vaccine, in most instances this was
not the case. From 1911 to 1935 the 4 leading causes of death among those aged 1 to 14
years, covered by Metropolitan Life Insurance policies, were diphtheria, measles, scarlet
fever and whooping cough.11

However, by 1945 the combined rates from these 4 diseases had declined by 95%, before
mass vaccine program began in the United States .12 By far the greatest factors in the
decline were better housing with less crowded conditions, better nutrition, and other
public health, hygienic, and medical measures.

Discussion The conventional view is that adverse vaccine reactions are relatively
uncommon. At variance with this are internationally recognized authorities such as Dr.
Bernard Rimland. Also at variance are many parents whose children have developed medical
complications following vaccines where no other cause was evident.

Time may prove that one of the basic flaws in American childhood vaccine programs is
that it is increasingly compulsory and mandatory. Once considered the fountainhead of
freedom, in the enforcement of vaccine programs, America has become one of the most
stringent and arbitrary of all nations. Parents refusing to have their children
vaccinated, often for religious reasons, are subject to charges of child abuse.

Public health officials contend that such compulsory measures are necessary for control
of infectious diseases which, they maintain, would increase along with childhood death
rates if the vaccine mandates were lifted. In my opinion, this argument does not bear up
to scrutiny for the following reasons:

In 1979 Sweden banned the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine, considering it both
ineffective and dangerous. In spite of the banning, or perhaps because of it, Sweden
maintains one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. In 1975 Japan raised the
age of pertussis vaccine to 2 years of age, considering it dangerous in infancy. Since
that time, sudden infant death syndrome (cot deaths) have largely disappeared in Japan.13

Other nations with either voluntary vaccine programs, such as England, or less
stringently enforced programs have lower infant mortality rates than the US. With few
exceptions, they have not had a return of deadly epidemics (with high mortality).

One researcher has estimated that, in the case of autism, it may take 15 years to reach
the standards of scientific proof that MMR vaccine is causing autism in a large portion of
children with the condition. Can we afford to wait 15 years? For sake of argument, let us
assume that scientific proof is eventually gained that MMR is causatively related to a
significant portion of children with autism and developmental delay. If we continue to
enforce vaccine programs as at present, one shudders to think what the future generations
will think and write about us. Mistakes might be forgiven, but not the enforcement of
these mistakes. If such does prove to be the case, we can rest assured that they will be
neither kind nor charitable in their judgments of us.

Conclusion As previously mentioned, time may prove that vaccine programs went awry when
they deviated from the most basic of traditional medical ethics: the right of a patient to
choose or reject medical therapy, or the right of parents to accept or reject medical
procedures such as vaccines for their children. The right of free choice provides a system
for checks and balances now lacking. As a result, present vaccine programs are going to
extremes and are possibly causing more disease than they are preventing. The remedy?
Parents should be allowed the right of free choice to accept or reject vaccines for their
children.

Addendum Of related interest to the subject of MMR vaccine as a potential cause of
encephalitis is the report of Dr. Sudhir Gupta and coworkers in which they found marked
abnormalities of the immune systems of autistic children.10 Could the MMR vaccine have
been a contributing factor for these abnormalities? In 1991 there was a report of
significantly higher child mortality following high-tittered measles vaccines compared
with standard measles vaccines among children in Senegal.14 Subsequently a study was
undertaken to assess immune responses to the high tittered vaccines.15 The results showed
suppression in lymphoproliferation; that is, suppression in lymphocyte production
(lymphocytes are a class of white blood cells which play a major role in governing the
immune system). In the above study report it was stated, "the effect of measles
immunization on immune responses in infants has not been systematically studied." The
study was valuable but it tested only two strains of high red measles vaccines, not the
standard vaccine. As a result we do know that the high-tittered vaccine does cause immune
disturbances, but we do not know the effects of the standard measles vaccine, studies not
having been done. If such studies are not already in progress, let us hope that they soon
will be.

10. Gupta S et al., Dysregulated immune system in children with autism;
beneficial effects of intravenous globulin on autistic characteristics, J ofAutism and
Develop Disorders, Vol. 26, No. 4, 439-452, 1996. (In this article on page 450, it is
stated, "We theorized that the high titers of rubella antibody ... present in mothers
of children with autism would be transplacentally transferred and may persist for a
prolonged period in the child. When such a child gets MMR immunization, rubella antigen
may complex with preexisting antibodies and such complexes might play a role in
pathogenesis of autistic features.")

13. Vaccination. 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows that Vaccines
Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System, Viera Scheiliner, PhD., 1993 (from pages
33 to 49 the author extensively reviews the Swedish and Japanese experiences with the
pertussis vaccine, book available from New Atlantean Press, P.O. Box 9638-925, Santa Fe,
New Mexico 87504).